Hiking trails come to life through grants and dedication

PERRY COUNTY, Ky. (WYMT) In his two years in Perry County, Ben Braman has taken it upon himself to build trails for people to take in the natural beauty of Eastern Kentucky.

"When I moved to Hazard there wasn't a place to recreate outside, there wasn't recreational infrastructure outside," said Ben Braman a volunteer in the community.

For a little over a year and a half Braman, with help from the Perry County Fiscal Court and a number of volunteers, is developing a wide network of trails in Perry County.

"Once I started developing this area and recognizing how beautiful it was, more and more people became interested it’s amazing how many people in this community are dying for something like this," said Braman.

His most notable amount of work can be utilized at Perry County Park by the softball field where he has taken just a handful of trails and expanded it into a massive web of paths for people to hike.

"There's so much more to explore there is so much here to play with. We started with 3.2 miles, now we're up to 8 miles," Braman said with a smile.

This project is funded through grants applied for by Braman and the fiscal court. These paths are said to be creating things for visitors to take part in, attracting tourism dollars into the county.

"We invite you over. Come and see what we’re doing our parks are beautiful our trails are beautiful and we're going to continue to go forward," said Perry County Judge-Executive Scott Alexander.

Braman has multiple projects around the county working and is excited about what these trails have to offer the people and future visitors of Perry County.

"I think this is exciting. This is an exciting time to be in Southeast Kentucky. If you're on the right side of the fence as far as your understanding if you're glass half full, glass half empty. There's a lot of potential here to be tapped and I don't think people realize that" said Braman.

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